When a computer needs to communicate directly with another computer (i.e., the target computer) over a network, the originating computer typically needs to know an address of the target computer. For local area networks (e.g., IEEE 802.3), a standard technique for acquiring an appropriate address of a target computer is for the originating computer to send a broadcast message with some identifying characteristic of the target computer to the other computers in the network. The target computer can then reply with its address while any other computer can ignore the request. Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) is a standard for performing such an address resolution. Unfortunately, in networks with large numbers of computers, for example those interconnecting data centers that have a large number of computers, broadcasts for addresses may consume both significant bandwidth and processing resources.